[ cheers and applause ] >> seth: i wanna thank my guests nathan lane, rosemarie dewitt and amelia dimoldenberg. don't forget to make your plan to vote. thank you all for watching. we love you, everybody. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ it is literally the calm before the monster storm. this is a look at tampa, florida, eerily quiet as hurricane milton takes

aim at the state of florida. the clock is ticking. millions of people are on the move, told to evacuate before this extremely powerful hurricane makes landfall. tampa is expected to take a direct hit. people are boarding up and gassing up, racing to get out of harm's way. but some gas stations have run out of fuel. some store shelves are empty. in this case, because the food was moved to a trailer with a generator. if and when the power goes out, it is a dire situation in the southeast. as we speak. the emergency task force from the bay area, one of our task forces, is headed to the hurricane zone, ready to respond. others are heading home here to the bay area, cutting vacation short. in the interest of safety, let's bring in nbc's jocelyn moran, who joins us live from sfo. jocelyn, what are you seeing there? yeah. raj audrey, some of the passengers who just arrived called the bay area home but were in florida visiting when they heard about the

hurricane coming their way tonight, officials urging people to get out. as time runs out, you must leave. i'm not asking you to leave. i'm telling you, you must leave. hurricane milton rebounding back to a category five this afternoon as it heads straight for the florida gulf coast police blasting out last minute notices to evacuate quickly. secure your home or business and safely evacuate the area. many listening to the warnings. absolutely going to leave now. just taking whatever i can get in my car. milton. scale visible in this view from space. the storm expected to cause widespread damage when it makes landfall. nbc news forecasts it will reach florida's gulf coast early thursday morning, many facing bumper to bumper traffic heading out. some areas of florida empty, except for piles of debris from hurricane helene, and officials are running out of time to clear it before milton. we are doing here in the bay area at sfo, passengers are arriving from miami. ronald and his wife were visiting the

bahamas. it started raining like cats and dogs. i mean, we saw the streets starting to flood. so we say, guess what? it's time to get out of here. so we ended up going to the airport. we end up we had to they had to change our flight and california tonight sending task force teams to respond to hurricane milton. the menlo park fire protection district is a host to one of the fema urban search and rescue teams, made up of fire departments from san francisco down to san jose. one team of more than 40 members already left sunday in route to florida. however, today they did bump it up to what's called the type one response. so now we are sending almost 40 more people, so we'll have a total of 80. the additional team will be leaving tonight and tomorrow. where exactly they'll be at depends on where they're needed. a lot of that's going to depend on, you know, how hurricane milton hits and where there is damage and where there appears to be life

that needs to be rescued. jocelyn moran, nbc, bay area news. jocelyn. thank you. chief meteorologist jeff ranieri is keeping a close eye on this for us. jeff, break it down for us. when exactly is milton going to hit? and who should be the most concerned? well, it's going to be wednesday night and through thursday. that's the time zone here of the most critical weather. if you have any friends or family in the region, we're getting updates every single hour and what i want to show you on this current wide view, it's now beginning to pull away from the yucatan peninsula there in mexico. and starting to get closer and closer to florida. let's get you in right now to the view of the storm itself. and look at the structure of this. it's not entirely symmetrical, but an extremely well defined eye right there showing us the storm is working on all cylinders, like a machine feeding off that warm gulf. water winds at 160 cat five, a low central pressure at 914 millibars. and the newest information on the path of this

now has the path going a little bit more off to the south, but tampa to fort myers still in that forecast cone here a category four just before landfall, one 30 mile per hour winds. sarasota may actually take a direct hit there. goes over central florida, and by thursday morning it starts to exit anywhere from daytona beach to fort pierce. 85 mile per hour winds, 15 plus inches of rain, a storm surge that could be 15ft high. so massive on all fronts. we'll get you more updates on this. and of course, some bay area rain chances coming up. all right jeff, thanks. and you heard jeff there. milton is currently a category five. this is view from spacex. and astronaut docked at the international space station. posted this time lapse. it is a massive and powerful storm. check this out five. let me grab my phone real quick. so what you're looking at here is a team of researchers with the national oceanic and atmospheric administration that braved major

turbulence to collect critical data about hurricane milton. equipment went flying through the cabin at one point, as milton churns toward tampa. make sure to stay with us for the latest. are today in the bay. will be tracking it overnight. tune in beginning at 5 a.m. for the very latest. our other headlines tonight. the emotional and bitter process of closing down public schools. we now know which san francisco schools may be closed next fall. and as expected, this plan is not sitting well with many parents and students. here's nbc's terry mcsweeney. we want to maintain local control, and we want to ensure that we have a balanced budget and that weefit spend. te

san francisco unified school district says closing eight elementary schools, one k through eight, and two high schools will save the district more than $20 million. the school, set for closure are from

all over the city. you see the list right here. from the excelsior to pacific heights and many districts in between. the district has lost 4000 students in just the past seven years, meaning $80 million less in revenue. jean parker elementary has been in chinatown for more than 50 years. it's on the list. my little one. she just started her first year here and she's so excited with her sister. and i don't know where they i don't understand. the two high schools being closed are the june jordan school for equity and the academy of san francisco at mcateer. passionate parents turned out for tonight's school board meeting. if you close us, you are closing one of the most dynamic community learning spaces in the district. the numbers are not telling you the whole story. here are the numbers the district used to determine which school closes an elementary or k through eight with fewer than 260 students, and in the lower 50% of composite scores, a high school with fewer than 400 students and not an alternative school. the montessori school in pacific

heights made the list among its students are special needs children like angel carmack's, three boys, one with adhd and two with autism. a little overwhelmed, a little anxious about it. we really liked this school, so we're really sad that it's closing. all of the students at eight schools would move together to a new campus. students at the remaining three schools would be moved to a number of different schools over the next month. school district officials will be going out to the schools scheduled for closure to hear from the community in november. they will have their final list for closure or merger, and in december, they will vote. in san francisco, terry mcsweeney, nbc bay area news. terry thanks. city leaders plan to beef up police presence in antioch to fight violent crime there. tonight, the council voted to approve $500,000 in police overtime money. it would also pay officers from outside agencies $200 an hour to help with patrols. antioch has seen a

wave of shootings more than 15 shootings last month alone, but the police chief says it doesn't have the staffing to cover the high crime neighborhoods. it lost several officers to a police corruption investigation and remains short staffed. residents and business owners say they're frustrated by the growing crime, and they support paying for more officers. all right. gut wrenching for us as the a's close the door on oakland and opened the door in las vegas late tonight. the a's big move is about to take a big step forward. a few hours from now, the tropicana resort is set to be imploded at 2:30 a.m. the historic site will be taken down with thousands of pounds of explosives, is expected to take about 22 seconds. this is all for the a's, so they can build their new ballpark right there on the las vegas strip at the site. tonight, take a look. you see the a's logo with the red carpet there all lit up, signaling a warm welcome of

sorts for the team renderings show the a's proposed dome, which would sit on nine acres of the property where the tropicana once sat, or will about to be offset. the stadium plans to hold 33,000 fans with views of the vegas skyline. however, the deal is not finalized yet. but today, the las vegas stadium authority denied rumors that the deal is in trouble. they said an audit of a's owner john fisher's finances has them confident the a's will follow through on their plans. new at 11. hundreds of pro-palestinian student groups and community organizers are gathering in berkeley tonight. they're calling for a ceasefire in gaza, with the war passing the year long mark. yesterday, the rally was part of a day of action in the city. nbc's pete suratos is in berkeley with the details. noho. hundreds of pro-palestinian demonstrators rallying together tonight at uc berkeley's crescent lawn, calling for an end to the war in gaza. the demonstrations have

been taking place in cities like berkeley. for more than a year, with yesterday marking a year since the deadly october 7th attacks on israel by hamas, which led to the ongoing deadly war in the region that's killed tens of thousands of people. we fight because it is the only thing we can do. we will continue to rise and demand for our full liberation. the speakers tonight, representing different colleges and high schools across the bay area, all calling for a ceasefire in gaza. tonight's event followed a day of action by students throughout berkeley with a larger rally taking place this afternoon at uc berkeley's sproul plaza. here in the bay. here in california, all across the country and all across the world. and, you know, celebrating the steadfastness and the resilience of the palestinian people and the and as the demonstrations take place here at home, the war continues abroad with more than 100 palestinians killed in the last 48 hours. as israel launches yet another offensive in the north,

this time concentrated on the jabalia refugee camp, while at the same time continuing to order the evacuation of the entire northern section of the gaza strip. i think this is an issue that is going to affect us all. we're already seeing the expansion of the war into lebanon. amber hatfield says it was important for her to be here tonight and with no signs of the war slowing down in gaza, she believes there will be more demonstrations to come. we'll continue to organize and continue to show up, to protest and do anything we can to stop this occupation. no more. in berkeley, pete suratos nbc, bay area news. following up on a story we first reported yesterday, san francisco police are now investigating the vandalism at manny's cafe as a hate crime. the vandalism happened as a large pro-palestinian demonstration was wrapping up nearby on sunday. video posted on social media appears to show the suspect, a man with his face covered spray painting on the

walls of manny's, which is a jewish owned cafe in the mission district. police have not yet made an arrest. well, the election is four weeks from tonight and the presidential race is once again coming through the bay area. donald trump's running mate, jd vance, is coming back to the peninsula tomorrow. the ohio senator will be in woodside for a big dollar fundraiser. this will be his second trip to the bay area in the past few months. in july, he raised money at the four seasons hotel in palo alto at an event hosted by mike belshe, the co-founder of the crypto company bitgo. as for the democrats vice president, vice presidential candidate tim walz raising money in reno this evening, the minnesota governor flew into reno late this afternoon. he spoke at a campaign fundraiser, then held a rally at the grand sierra resort, which was open to the public earlier today. governor walz was in sacramento. he did not speak with reporters when he landed in sacramento. he went straight to governor newsom's home in fair oaks for a

fundraiser. several state and local leaders were there, including sacramento mayor darrell steinberg and the owner of the kings, vivek ranadivé. this event raised 2.5 million bucks. we're back in 60s just ahead. do not fall for them. the phony phone calls that have mountain view police issuing a warning tonight. also, how about this artificial intelligence on the campaign trail? the reason sam liccardo has started to use ai to speak to voters at certain events and check it out. the fog is starting to roll back into san francisco. we'll let you know the impact the tempetures tomorrow,

are spoofing the department's non-emergency line, trying to get money or personal information from whoever answers the phone. mountain view police say they never called people to ask for money or personal information. they will also never ask for cryptocurrency or gift cards to pay a fine, or remove a warrant. if you get one of those calls, they urge you to hang up immediately. well, over a dozen states, including california, are suing tiktok. earlier today, attorney general rob bonta explained the lawsuit. he said the app is designed to promote compulsive and addictive use in children, and that's

especially harmful to their developing brains. the lawsuit alleges false advertising and unfair and deceptive business practices. a tiktok spokesperson disputes many of the claims in the lawsuit, saying in part, we provide robust safeguards and proactively remove suspected underage users and have voluntarily launched safety features such as default screen time limits, family pairing and privacy by default for minors under 16. we've endeavored to work with the attorneys general for over two years, and it is incredibly disappointing that they have taken this step rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industry wide challenges. here's something catching our attention. high profile candidate for congress is using ai to talk to voters during his campaign events. my doctor gave me strict orders not to talk, so i'm not talking. but we've had people planning these meet and greets for many weeks, so we wanted to find another way to

engage with residents. pretty interesting here. that's former san jose mayor sam liccardo. he's running for congress to replace anna eshoo. last week, liccardo had to pull out of a scheduled debate right here on nbc due to laryngitis. so he found a new way of communicating. liccardo submitted a 22nd clip of his voice to an app called speechify. he then had a q&a with the groups of voters. his answers were typed out. you see it there and then spoken by an ai generated version of his own voice. the app can also turn written text from books or articles into speech. voice cloning is something that we are really excited about because a lot of our students have reached out to us and told us that when they read in a voice that they're familiar with, which is their own or one of their loved ones, they tend to read for longer times and also are able to get through more content. yeah, this app, speechify, was actually created in part to help people with dyslexia. well, getting back to sam liccardo, he

and state assemblyman evan low will face each other in the rescheduled debate this friday. you can watch it right here on nbc bay area, beginning at 7 p.m. i'll be moderating this debate. if you can't watch it live, you can watch it on replay later on on our website and on our youtube channel. some students in berkeley and oakland are getting ready to vote in the school board elections. for the first time ever, berkeley high and its civic leaders club hosted a student led school board candidate forum earlier tonight. students got a chance to ask the candidates questions to learn about their platforms. it's especially important now as 16 and 17 year olds are now eligible to vote in school board elections in both berkeley and oakland. all five candidates attended tonight's forum. the main goal for the students leading this forum was to help their peers get involved and care about who is representing their needs. our goal is to educate them more on how these politics directly affects them, which i think a lot of students aren't necessarily aware of. so

like, we've been doing a lot of pre-registration events, going to classes, going to clubs, and a reminder there are two open positions in the berkeley school board. the candidates are incumbents ana valadao and former board president laura babbitt. there's also former principal jen korn, realtor norma j.f. harrison and sf state lecturer abdur sikder. all right, let's get back to jeff ranieri and talk about our weather. what a great cooldown for us here in the bay area. jeff. it's been so nice. and we're going to continue on that trend here as we head through tomorrow. just take a look at these temperatures right now we're down anywhere from ten degrees cooler in santa rosa to eight in concord, down 11 in san jose, 63 degrees in livermore right now, and the thing tomorrow that's going to keep those temperatures on the downward trend is the storm track is moving closer. so we get some morning fog and eventually a system here by the weekend with a chance of a few showers. let me get you more details on that microclimate forecast. and here it is tomorrow morning. and it will feel, well, quite unusual after

where we've been with our heat wave. quite a bit of low clouds and fog expected to roll in for that early morning commute. even the chance here of some spotty drizzle going back towards inland contra costa and alameda counties. by 1:00 in the afternoon, we'll have some sunshine across the east bay and south bay, but notice some of those high clouds that will move into the north bay, and we likely could see another round of some high clouds mixing in right through tomorrow afternoon. so a little taste of fall trying to at least come back here as we head through tomorrow. it's going to be a cool start. temperatures here in the 50s all across the bay area. not too many differences temperature wise, because that fog is just kind of helping to level us off. and then through tomorrow we're going to see another 10 degrees drop for many cities. so this is going to be nice to be out in 82, in cupertino, 85, in morgan hill, also looking at 85 in los gatos for the east bay. 73 in oakland, 79, vallejo, 85, in livermore. let's take it to the peninsula. 66 in daly city, down to redwood city, 75, san francisco. after

several days in the 90s, this is going to feel just excellent. 67 in downtown, 65 in the marina and for the north bay, 84 in sonoma. let's take you back to hurricane milton. in case you missed our earlier update, i did want to show you this is pulling away from mexico. making a quick push here towards florida, maintaining category five strength 160mph. look at that center eyewall of the storm. this is one to be reckoned with here. we are expecting it to approach florida cat four by wednesday night. one 30 mile per hour winds, likely a landfall very early thursday, passing over central florida, exiting somewhere between daytona beach and fort pierce. winds of 85mph. so again, anywhere from tampa to fort myers. in that forecast, cone, we could see up to 15in of rain storm surge up to 15ft. we're going to continue to have live reports back here in san francisco. spotty chance of a shower on saturday 69. and for the inland valleys, a spot

chance on saturday and 78. this is really just what we need after what we've been through. indeed. thank you jeff. all right. up next, it could come in handy. this winter. the new at home test. the fda just approved to test for both covid and

new video of the contra costa county firefighting helicopter.

it was made possible by a partnership between pg&e and the contra costa fire protection district. it's meant to help firefighters on the ground by fighting the blaze from above. right now, it will work exclusively within the county. six season is fast approaching and now there's a new way to test for both the flu and covid at home. so today, the fda approved the first at-home test to detect both the flu and covid test uses a nasal swab takes approximately 15 minutes for results. other over-the-counter combo tests are currently available under emergency use authorization, but the fda says the full approval of this new test is especially important as the country enters flu season. all right. up next, a big move by the 49ers today we'll show you what happe

on the team flight will be a new guy. who's that guy? today, the 49ers signed field goal kicker matthew wright. the 28 year old has had short stints with the chiefs and steelers, among other teams. he'll be with the 49ers for at least, we think, a couple of weeks. here's why. the 49ers existing kicker, jake moody, got hurt last sunday in that loss to the cardinals. moody was trying to make a tackle and left the game with an ankle injury. this could be a real problem for the 49ers as the season progresses.

all right. baseball playoffs tonight. what a wild scene down in san diego. the friar getting this crowd juiced up at petco park. padres and dodgers, bottom of the second inning. watch this. fernando tatis jr with the two run homer. he crushes it, and the fans just go absolutely bonkers. they were that way the entire game, it seemed. padres beat the dodgers 6 to 5. san diego has a two one lead in this best of five series. they could eliminate the dodgers tomorrow night. all right, well, it's opening night of the nhl, and we had history on the ice in seattle. that's assistant coach jessica campbell. she becomes the first woman in the nhl to work a regular season game as a coach. she's right there on the bench. the 32 year old is from canada. she was a star player at cornell. after she graduated. she played in the canadian women's hockey league. now she's made it to the top to the nhl. as for the game, seattle lost to

saint louis. by the way, the sharks opened the season thursday night at the ark tank

the official kickoff happened today aboard the triple e, a navy assault ship now docked near the golden gate bridge. a lot of family friendly

festivities are planned, but one of the big headliners, the blue angels precision aerial shows this is video from last year. on thursday, the blue angels will do practice runs. then they'll perform on friday when you can also see the parade of ships. that's going to be gorgeous. can't wait for that. just a couple of days from now before we leave. jeff, take it away. fleet week first and then for the rest of the staff and fleet week 60s. some 70s are going to see a mix of some fog and sunshine. i think overall it's going to be nice after that heat wave. we're going to see temperatures tomorrow to 85. look at saturday 78 degrees. we've been working hard to get to that number. we earned this. it's been a while. yes, we earned this one. thanks for joining us tonight. we hope to tonight, the race tonight, the race to escape, as monster hurricane milton threatens to make a 5 strength and e direct hit here in florida. the hurricane regaining category 5 strength and expected

to double in size before slamming florida's west coast. a state of emergency, mandatory evacuations. highways jammed with vehicles trying to get out. theme parks shutting down. tampa in the potential bulls-eye. we're with first responders bracing forwarning the worst storm to impact. tropicana field where the tampa bay rays play transformed into a base camp. president biden warning this could be the worst storm to hit florida in over a century, as the southeast is still reeling from helene. al roker with a shifting new storm track tonight. also this evening, four weeks until the election. kamala harris on a media blitz, and asked what she would have done differently than president biden. how she answered and just in, the afghan national under arrest in oklahoma. th. and the new book claiming donald trump secretly sent covid testing machines to vladimir putin during the shortage in 2020 states are suing the

. how his campaign is responding. and just in, the afghan national under arrest in oklahoma. the terror attack he is accused of plotting for election day. the new legal battle over children using tiktok. why more than a dozen states are suing the popular app. and for fans still pining for "game of thrones," your chance to own a piece of the hit show. >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt, reporting tonight from florida's gulf coast. here is lester holt. >> good evening and welcome from st. pete beach, where neighborhoods like this still bear the scars of the last hurricane to come through here, helene. now the area tonight of bracing for what's about to come, hurricane milton, now barely 30 hours away from making a historic landfall here along florida's gulf coast. it could wind up being the strongest hurricane to hit thes. tampa bay area in a century. officials warning an extremely dangerous

and life-threatening situation. as expected, milton's intensity has fluctuated, right now back to a category 5, which were we begin tonight with al roker landfa some time wean and some new tracking updates. what's the latest, al? >> lester, we are watching this system intensifying now. 165-mile-per-hour winds, category 5, moving northeast at night. the track brings it a little south of tampa, so they may be spared the worst of that storm surge, but it's still going to be bad when we make landfall some time between 12:00 and 3:00 a.m., maybe an hour or so on either side of that. now the storm surge is a big deal, 10 to 15 feet south of tampa going towards fort myers and sarasota. 5 to 8 feet as you get farther south. but as the hurricane exits, it could see a storm surge on the

eastern end of florida. and we're also looking at a high risk of flooding, anywhere from ocala, orlando, sarasota. heavy rain, 18 inches or more, that's going to cause catastrophic flooding. and lester, also tornadoes possible from daytona beach, sebring, all the way down to key largo. lester? >> all right, al, thanks very much. on the way here today, we saw roads leading out of the flood zones filled with traffic, many who witnessed what helene did a few weeks ago complied with mandatory evacuation orders and made their escapes from the storm zone, leaving behind community likes this one, empty and vulnerable. tonight, time is running out with the ferocious category 5 hurricane milton heading straight for the florida gulf coast. >> you must leave. i'm not asking you to leave. i'm telling you, you must leave. >> in vulnerable areas, police blasting out last-minute notices to evacuate. >> quickly secure your home or business and safely evacuate the area. >> there are signs many here are heeding the dire warnings. >> absolutely going to leave now. take whatever i can get in my car. >> bumper-to-bumper traffic heading out of town, while some of the region's most iconic communities look like ghost towns. in st. pete beach, we found the streets piles of mostly empty today, except for piles of debris from helene. this is amazing, these piles of debris

everywhere. >> it's mountains of debris everywhere. and they seem to be growing.